


Present

by Jen425



Series: If We Only Had The Time [1]
Category: Super Sentai Series, Tokusatsu, 快盗戦隊ルパンレンジャー VS 警察戦隊パトレンジャー | Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger
Genre: Developing Relationship, Eventual Relationships, F/F, Femslash, Gen, Multi, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, angst & fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22611151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Present: fully focused on or involved in what one is doing or experiencing.-——•——-“Do you think they’re even alive?” Sakuya asks, when they both find themselves staring through one way glass at Dogranio’s cell.“I hope so,” Tsukasa replies.Nightmares plague her vision.(Only a week?)She hopes so.
Relationships: Hayami Umika/Ichinose Shiho, Hayami Umika/Myoujin Tsukasa, Ichinose Shiho & Myoujin Tsukasa, Ichinose Shiho/Myoujin Tsukasa
Series: If We Only Had The Time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1626928
Comments: 12
Kudos: 18





	Present

**Author's Note:**

> This fic became like… ten times the monster I wanted it to be, but here we are!
> 
> I have this series… mostly completed and will be posting each Friday.

Perhaps the hardest thing Tsukasa wrestles with, after everything is over and she has a chance to breathe, is that she never knew them. She couldn’t tell you which parts of Tooma’s demeanor was to hide secrets, when Kairi was really laughing (or if he ever really did)…

When Umika offered a hand.

She thinks—

_ “What if you asked the Phantom Thieves for help?” _

_ “A police officer and a thief? They would never agree to that!” _

She knows Umika was a person who cared. About girls with bright smiles and precious treasures, about friends going off to face monsters alone, about people in danger and about…

About Ichinose Shiho.

(She doesn’t know if Umika cared about herself; all of the Lupinrangers had some streak of recklessness with their own lives, after all. Tsukasa doesn’t know if Umika really cared about her, either.

She wishes. She think all of her team is holding onto their wishes.)

She’s not and never has been reckless in the way everyone around her is. Focused, determined, aware… but not reckless with her own life or others.

But, every now, that leads to overthinking things, which is why it’s over a month after the battle with Dogranio when Tsukasa finally finds herself sitting at a cafe with her friend’s loved one.

“Thank you for coming, Ichinose-san,” Tsukasa says, trying very hard to smile fully. It probably doesn’t fully succeed. The “final battle”, for all that it can be called one when Ganglers are still running around, is over, but the aftermath is still exhausting, with plenty of ganglers running around without leadership but, thankfully, without Collection pieces or giant forms to add to their arsenal.

And part of her, every fight, expects the Lupinrangers to arrive in a flourish.

But, of course, they never do.

In the present, Ichinose-san just smiles, a little bit sadly.

“No,” she says. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you, too. Noel said you were close to her?”

“…Of course he did,” Tsukasa can’t help but reply, finding herself utterly unsurprised by the fact that Shiho knows Noel. “But… yes, I think so. As much as she was close to any of us - us as in the Patorangers. I’m sure you knew her better than me.”

Ichinose-san merely sighs.

“I knew her two years ago,” she says. “Even if it still half feels like yesterday. I don’t think I can reconcile the Umika I knew with the one I’ve been reading about on the news.”

Tsukasa scoffs.

“Oh please don’t read about the Lupinrangers on the news,” she says. “They aren’t ever described like either half of the people I knew really are… the people they really were. But they were always hiding a face, and I… want to know who Umika really is.”

Ichinose-san just smiles, sadly.

“You loved her, didn’t you?” She asks, and Tsukasa… freezes. A million memories running through her head. The visit to the amusement park, working with Lupin Yellow and spending time with Umika. Lupin Yellow’s at-the-time mysterious help with the “kidnapping” case. A hundred other smaller moments where Umika had smiled or helped her or Lupin Yellow had half-flirted and cut herself off…

Saying their final goodbyes, before the Lupinrangers’ final battle.

And she thinks about who the others fought for, Kairi versus Tooma, and how they fought.

…Oh.

“I did,” Tsukasa admits. “I do… but she was waiting for someone else.”

Ichinose-san smiles.

“I hoped, if she did all of this for me,” she says. “But it seems we both want the same thing - to know Umika.”

Tsukasa smiles back.

“And you, too, Ichinose-san,” she says hastens to say. “You mattered to her for a reason.”

Ichinose-san nods.

“Well then,” she says. “I’m Ichinose Shiho. I’m eighteen or twenty years old next month according to my birthday and depending on if you’re counting… frozen time or not. I want to write Manga. I’m an only child, and my parents are businesspeople. I’m dating a sweet girl named Hayami Umika…”

  
  
  


They talk for hours, and Tsukasa doesn’t realize how late it is until the cafe announces it’s closing. It wasn’t just about Umika, either, though there was plenty of that. (“I always knew she was strong - she was the one who didn’t see it.”)

But they talked about themselves, and each other, and…

It was… nice.

“I’m sorry for taking so much of your time,” Ichinose-san says. Tsukasa just shakes her head.

“I didn’t mind, Ichinose-san,” she says. “I’m technically still on-call, but we’re generally allowed paid time off after we finish the paperwork of the day’s Gangler attack.”

She shudders, thinking about some of the odd things the Ganglers have put her team and her friends through.

“…Although we don’t usually take it,” she admit. Ichinose-san laughs.

“Well then thank you for your time, Myoujin-san,” she says. “I enjoyed talking to you.”

Tsukasa just waves her hand.

“So did I,” she says. “And… call me Tsukasa.”

The girl smiles, nodding.

“Then you call me Shiho,” she says.

Tsukasa smiles back.

“I will,” she says. “If… you’d like to meet again, that is.”

Shiho’s smile gets even larger.

“I would be happy to,” she says.

  
  
  


Noel announces his leave of absence about a week after Tsukasa’s first conversation with Shiho. She doesn’t fault him for it. They’re all dealing with their losses and successes in different ways. She’s been spending time with Shiho in part for that purpose, after all.

And then she thinks…

“Noel has no connection to any of Zamigo’s victims,” she says, to the others, a few days later. “Does that mean he’s still trying to get someone back?”

The others pause what they’re doing.

“It must,” Keiichiro says, eventually. Tsukasa looks around. Hilltop and Jim Carter aren’t here, at the moment, thankfully.

“Do you think…” she says, “that he’ll continue retrieving the Lupin Collection?”

The others both look down.

“He couldn’t, though,” Sakuya says. “Because he’d have to take our gear. And we need it to stop the Gangler Remnants!”

Thief or police officer. A question which Noel had perfectly dodged for months. And he may very well have to answer it, soon.

Not if Tsukasa has anything to say about it, though.

“We can get rid of the Remnants,” she begins, before she can stop herself or let herself think. “ _ Quickly _ . And then… then we return our gear to its creator.”

“Do you really think it’s possible?” Sakuya asks. Tsukasa just shrugs.

“I don’t know,” she admits. “I hope so.”

Keiichiro stands up, suddenly.

“If this helps Noel,” he says, “Like we couldn’t help the other Lupinrangers… we have to try.”

There’s such strength in his voice that Tsukasa doesn’t at all doubt their success.

  
  
  


Tsukasa wonders if her present is in bad taste up to and until Shiho wraps her into a hug, pulling back with a sad smile.

“These are so cute,” she says, holding the plush Lupin Yellow and Patren #3 in her hands. “Where did you find them?”

“Noel showed us,” Tsukasa admits. “A… few months ago. He stole Kairi’s phone, and…”

  
  
  


_ “We could sue them for this,” Keiichiro had said, frowning. Kairi had just laughed, finally giving up on glaring at Noel for taking his phone. _

_ (“You  _ are _ supposed to be working, Kairi,” Umika had chastised him, to no effect. The only ones there were the Patorangers, anyways.) _

_ “I think they’re cute,” he said. _

_ “Maybe Keiichiro would like a Lupin Red?” Noel had offered with that damn  _ smile _ on his face that always hid secrets. Kairi and Keiichiro let out simultaneously squawks that had everyone, even Tooma who had temporarily turned around to view the chaos, to at least smile. _

_ (At the time, she’d assumed Kairi’s response was jealousy.) _

_ Kairi had recovered first, of course, smirking. _

_ “Then Umika should get a Patren #3–” _

_ “Kairi!” _

  
  
  


Shiho laughs.

“That is hilarious,” she says. “Are you sure this is my sweet girlfriend?”

Tsukasa tilts her head.

“To be fair,” she says. “Kairi would be incredibly frustrating to work with. Of the three, I think he was the closest to Lupin Red. He didn’t seem to care much, care at all, about his cover job.”

Shiho smiles, hugging the stuffed Lupin Yellow closer.

“But Umika always puts her all into what she does,” she says. “That’s why I can believe any of this. It’s why I can…”

She trails off. Tsukasa blinks.

“Why you can what?”

Shiho just shakes her head.

“It’s nothing,” she says. “Do you have to get back to work today?”

Tsukasa looks at the time and… oh. Yes.

“Sadly,” she sighs. “We’re in the middle of a case - a new string of disappearances that we think is being caused by an organized group of Gangler Remnants.”

Shiho smiles.

“Good luck,” she says. “Solve it quick, this time.”

There’s no bite in her voice, just a slight tease, and Tsukasa smiles back.

“I’ll do my best,” she says. “And happy birthday.”

Shiho smiles.

“Yeah,” she says.

(Tsukasa misses the way Shiho’s smile drops, the moment she turns away. She’ll later wonder how many times she missed it, twice over.)

  
  
  


Sometimes, Tsukasa has odd nightmares of Umika, in Lupin Yellow’s clothes, not dead but certainly haggard, long hair and surrounded by darkness.

(A closed safe. Is there anything left inside of it?)

Sometimes, Kairi and Tooma are next to her.

She always tries to reach out to them. Her hand passes right through them.

  
  
  


(It’s better than the dreams where they’re dead, though.)

  
  
  


“Keiichiro, stop!” Tsukasa cries, as Keiichiro goes at the monster with full force and no strategy like he hasn’t done in… a long time.

Even without Collection pieces, Ganglers’ natural abilities can still be dangerous. Like this one - she warps perspective.

The advantage they have is that she can only fool one person at a time.

“You can’t stop me!” Keiichiro growls. “I need to destroy him!”

“Him?” Sakuya asks, turning to Tsukasa for a second.

“Warped perspectives,” she reminds him, and he immediately nods and roles with it.

“Keiichiro-Sempai,” he says, continuing his struggle to  _ hold the Red back _ . “What are you seeing?”

“I won’t let him take them again!” Is all Keiichiro responds with.

That much, at least, Tsukasa can figure out.

(Later, even freed from the illusion, Keiichiro still won’t admit exactly what he saw. But he doesn’t say much of anything, afterwards - not for days.

And perhaps that painful mystery is worse than his explanation ever could be.)

  
  
  


They’re called one by one to HQ. As the Lupinrangers had been a case handed over to the GSPO, they stand a preliminary trial through it, despite not being present.

When (if) a way to free them is found, the answer may change.

Also, now that the Ganglers have been scattered due to their boss being captured, the higher ups want to congratulate them and get in-person reports from each member of the tactical unit.

(“And me, of course,” Noel had said lightly on a seemingly random phone call, a few days after he left, but Tsukasa’s learned to read him enough to hear his veiled warning. “I figured I should let you know.”)

Tsukasa is the last called, about two and a half months after the battle with Dogranio.

(Most of it is standard, really, the others tell her. This is hardly the first police organization tasked with fighting monsters, after all. They just want explanations for certain actions, details on the Lupinrangers to see if they fall under “Crimes of Superheroes”, bla bla bla. What she did. What they did. What some Gangler did.)

Before she leaves for all of it, however, she gets something precious to take with her: Shiho’s phone number.

“I like talking to you,” Shiho admits. “And I know it’s only a week, but still.”

Tsukasa blinks.

“Oh,” she says. “Well… thank you.”

Shiho’s smile lights up the cafe.

“Of course.”

  
  
  


Since Noel is in France, as far as Tsukasa knows, she arranged to meet up with him after he arrives. For all his frustrations, he was still her friend, and she’d missed him almost as much as she missed the Lupinrangers.

And, while, yes, they do catch up (actually he stays in contact with Tooma’s fiancé, Oohira Aya, as well, so knows some of the goings on, specifically Tsukasa’s friendship with Shiho); that was the main reason Tsukasa had called him, after all…

She has a more serious question, as well.

“How the Lupin Collection works…” Noel says, voice dropping from his usual demeanor to something deeper, more invested…

And then he looks up.

“I don’t know.”

Tsukasa bangs her head against the table as Noel raises his hands, obviously attempting to backtrack.

“I mean, I know it needs to be collected,” he says. “And then… well, it takes over a week to charge.”

“Only a week?” Tsukasa asks. Noel looks away.

“And how many Remnant cases are ongoing, right now?” He asks. “I could never ask any of you to turn from your duty more than I could have asked them to turn from their. Or Kogure to ask me to turn from either of mine.”

“You left,” Tsukasa points out. Noel merely shrugs.

“Sometimes, leaving really is the best option,” he says. And then he smiles. “Hopefully, I’ll come back with something to show for it.”

  
  
  


(Tsukasa really should have learned by now how to measure Noel’s words.)

  
  
  


“Do you think they’re even alive?” Sakuya asks, when they both find themselves staring through one way glass at Dogranio’s cell.

“I hope so,” Tsukasa replies.

Nightmares plague her vision.

(Only a week?)

She hopes so.

  
  
  


When Shiho all but slams her bag down next to her, as she sits across from her in the small restaurant, Tsukasa immediately knows something is wrong.

“Are you okay?” She asks. Shiho doesn’t quite growl, but it’s close.

“Not really,” she says. “I was just reminded of how much I missed, again.”

“You didn’t have to come,” Tsukasa offers. Shiho just sighs, shaking her head. Her smile is brittle, however.

“I like spending time with you,” she says, words utterly sincere. “I don’t know why, but I feel like I can talk to you.”

Still, though… Tsukasa has a feeling that this isn’t a conversation Shiho wants to have in public.

“Why don’t we go to my apartment?” She offers. “We can talk there, instead.”

Shiho blinks.

“Really?”

Tsukasa smiles.

“Of course.”

  
  
  


“I have nightmares,” Shiho admits, settling onto Tsukasa’s mildly-covered-in-stuffed-animals couch. “But I told you that, already. I just… the worst ones are the ones where Umika is there, instead of me… because it’s still true.”

Tsukasa nods.

“I know how you feel,” she says. No dreams are worse for her than ones of the Lupinrangers, especially those of Umika.

Shiho sighs.

“I’m moving out,” she says. “In a month or so - to live with Aya and Shori. My parents are being overprotective, and my mom said… she said she wished I had never met Umika.”

Somewhere along the way, the younger woman had begun shaking, and Tsukasa moves to sit next to her. Shiho immediately leans in.

“It’s been months,” she says. “And I still… miss her. Why can’t I move on?”

Tsukasa has no answer for.

But, as she looks at the girl Umika had moved heaven and earth for, looks past her at the planet only safe because Dogranio was left powerless…

She thinks she can at least understand why Umika made her choices.

  
  
  


“Am I the only one,” Sakuya asks, almost six months after the battle with Dogranio, “who still keeps expecting them to join us, in a fight?”

(He doesn’t need to say who. He’s brave enough as it is, to even say that much.)

Tsukasa looks at Keiichiro; the tight pain on his face says more than words ever will. Something in him broke, when he almost killed Dogranio and the Lupinrangers with him, something implacable and, while not interfering with his ability to fight, certainly changing him.

She knows just as much that Noel is gone because of what they’ve all lost. Friends. People they cared for. Not-quite-allies.

…them.

She knows she still keeps waiting for Lupin Yellow to show up somewhere she shouldn’t be and offer a hand.

But she also… has something back, has found herself caring for the one who Umika gave everything for.

And so she sits in the silence, with the others.

All lost in their own thoughts and grief.

And she doesn’t just think about the past - she thinks about the present. She thinks about her dream and she thinks about Shiho.

And…

“We failed them,” Keiichiro says, at last. “I feel like we failed them.”

But Tsukasa shakes her head at that, smiling.

“They achieved their wish,” she says. “They wouldn’t want it any other way, and… that has to be enough.”

  
  
  


(Over a year later, when everything is truly over and done and Umika is smiling awkwardly at the bridesmaid bouquet in her hands, Shiho on Tsukasa’s other side… Tsukasa will decide that enough just isn’t good enough.

For now, however…

She can’t even imagine that perfect ending.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Find me on Tumblr @flaim-ita, or @dancingqueen-mai if you just want Toku. I also plan on posting edits there.


End file.
